Despite ending their IPL 2026 campaign with a 40-run win over Kolkata Knight Riders in Kolkata on Sunday, Delhi Capitals once again finished outside the playoffs.
DC ended sixth in the table with seven wins and seven defeats, extending their playoff drought to five straight seasons. It was also the second consecutive season in which the combination of head coach Hemang Badani and captain
Axar Patel failed to guide the franchise into the top four.
Delhi showed flashes of being a strong side during the season and at some stages looked capable of making the playoffs. But poor performances at home, lack of wickets, poor catching, among others combined to derail their campaign once again.
Home disadvantage
While Delhi struggled for consistency through the season, their poor performances at home once again played a major role in their disappointing campaign.
DC played seven matches at the Arun Jaitley Stadium and
won only two of them. Their first home victory came against Mumbai Indians on April 4 by six wickets, while the second arrived much later against Rajasthan Royals last week by five wickets. Between those wins, they lost five consecutive home matches against Gujarat Titans, Punjab Kings, Royal Challengers Bengaluru, Chennai Super Kings and KKR.
The Capitals struggled to understand the varying nature of the Kotla pitch and often failed to settle on the right strategy or playing combination for home games.
Not capitalising on moments and bad catching
There were several games where DC came close to victory but failed to finish the job. They lost to Gujarat Titans by one run at home and were also unable to defend a total of 264 against Punjab Kings.
Dropped catches added to their problems and proved costly in defeats against Chennai Super Kings and Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Looking back at the season, where DC finished sixth despite starting with two wins, Badani said things could have turned out differently had the side grabbed key moments during matches.
"There were many games where I genuinely felt that the game could go either way and we didn't seize those moments," Badani said in the press conference after win over Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). "One being the Gujarat [Titans] game, we lost the game there by one run. The [failure to defend] 264 [against Punjab Kings] is again something that you would try and seize or try to defend that score. With CSK [Chennai Super Kings], we dropped some catches, and with SRH [Sunrisers Hyderabad], we dropped some catches in the crucial time of the game."
Lack of wickets
Apart from losing crucial matches, Delhi’s inability to take wickets throughout the season also hurt their campaign badly. Even after bowling out KKR in their final match, DC ended IPL 2026 with only 64 wickets in 14 matches, joint-lowest among all teams.
DC bowlers sent down 254.3 overs during the season and averaged 39.92, which was the second worst among all sides, ahead of only Punjab Kings (42.54). Their bowling strike rate of 23.8 was also better than only Punjab Kings (24.5).
Absence of Starc in most games
Mitchell Starc playing only six matches was another bad news for Delhi. The left-arm pacer picked up 11 wickets at an average of 20.36 and still finished as DC’s joint second-highest wicket-taker alongside Axar Patel. Only Lungi Ngidi, with 13 wickets in 11 games, took more wickets for DC.
Badani admitted Starc’s absence affected the team, but also pointed out that DC still had opportunities to qualify.
"Starc is obviously somebody who's done exceedingly well in all formats and him not being available to us the first nine games does hamper our progress. But I think, on the whole, even without him, we had our moments. Even without him, we had our chances to qualify. Starc does make a huge difference. But I think, as a side, I genuinely feel that if we had played those small margins… it's a game of small margins. Literally, very small margins."
Keeping it slow
Milestones like fifties and centuries do not matter much in T20 cricket, which makes batting strike rate a far more important metric. In terms of overall strike rate during the league stage, DC ranked fourth from the bottom, ahead of only Chennai Super Kings (147.71), Lucknow Super Giants (145.03), and Kolkata Knight Riders (147.16).
Delhi Capitals batters scored at an overall strike rate of 149.29 in IPL 2026.
A closer look at the numbers highlight the issue even further. Among the seven DC batters who faced at least 100 deliveries during the season, only one batter had a strike rate above 170 — KL Rahul.
Rahul scored 593 runs in 14 innings at a strike rate of 174.41.
'Open chested' Kuldeep
Kuldeep Yadav was named Player of the Match for figures of 3/29 against KKR in Delhi’s final league match, but the left-arm wrist spinner admitted he did not have a good IPL season overall.
Before the KKR match, Kuldeep had managed only seven wickets in ten innings at an average of 50.28 and an economy rate of 10.66. After DC’s defeat to Chennai Super Kings two weeks earlier, Axar Patel had even remarked that "when we were bowling, I missed my partner Kuldeep".
Speaking after the KKR game, Kuldeep explained the technical issue he felt affected his bowling during the season.
"I thought I was bowling a bit more open chest, and sometimes you're not using your full body. I just pushed the ball, and that's where the T20 batters are extremely strong to hit deep down the ground and play back foot. Once you start using more of your body and try to spin the ball harder, and ultimately you see the result, you get the dip and the drift, and obviously you can vary the pace as well. So it was lovely to see. I think it was a lovely game for me."
IPL 2026: DC report card
Despite the disappointing campaign, a few players gave DC genuine reasons for optimism. KL Rahul became the batting pillar of the side. He not only scored 593 runs in 14 games, but also improved his strike rate, hitting at 174.41 in the season and smashed one century and five half-centuries, often carrying the batting lineup during difficult periods.
Youngsters Sameer Rizvi and Ashutosh Sharma also impressed. Ashutosh, in particular, stood out with fearless strokeplay and a strike rate touching 181.91 in limited opportunities.
With the ball, Lungi Ngidi emerged as DC's most reliable wicket-taking pacer, claiming 13 wickets in a difficult season for bowlers. In the three games that he played, young pacer Madhav Tiwari also showed promise and took four wickets at an economy of 8.70.
What next for DC?
The next IPL season will bring another shift in control for Delhi Capitals, with co-ownership moving back from GMR Sports to JSW Sports for the next two years.
Will Axar Patel continue to lead the side in IPL 2027, or DC need a complete reset, once again? Perhaps it's too early to answer those questions as nobody knows what's the thinking inside the management.
However, what's known with certainty is that the IPL 2026 became another season full of missed opportunities for DC and they remain alongside Punjab Kings among the two teams who are part of the league since its beginning in 2008 but are yet to lift the IPL trophy.
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